Dry Cleaning: The Dry Cleaning Machine

Video Transcript

"These dry cleaning machines are thirty-five pound capacity which means that they can clean up to thirty-five pounds of clothing. A machine like this, which is a fifth generation machine, we're up in 2008 now so this is actually a sixth generation machine and it is ten years old. Brand new this machine would have cost about $42,000. Machines now-a -days start off at about $30,000 and can go all the way up to $100,000, depending on the size of the machine. This machine is computerized. It has a still on it, which cleans the solvent for us. It has a separator which separates the water from the dry cleaning solvent because water is the enemy in dry cleaning. Between loads we have to clean out a lint filter and a lint trap. If any buttons fall off they will fall into the lint trap and then we can recover them to replace them on the customers garment. This is how you program the computer, this screen tells you what part of the cycle the machine is on and what it is doing. This one says the still is on, it's rotating back and forth and we're in the drying cycle with the fan on, and all these symbols mean something different to me, it may be confusing to other people. We have about a minute and a half until the dry cleaning load that is in here is finished. At the same time we have the still cooking off new solvent and the still works the same as the drying process. It will take the fluid and boil it down into a gaseous form and go through the refrigeration unit and turn it back into a clear liquid which will leave the dirt, hair body fluids and other debris behind for me to clean out later on. Right here we're in the drying cycle. We're actually cooling down right now so we're cooling down at 50 degrees Fahrenheit, which will make it cool down to 80 degrees so we can pull it out or the dry cleaning machine and avoid wrinkles. "